My Side of the Story

It Was All a Dream

"Claudia, wake up," a soft female voice said. I opened my eyes. I was in a bright white room. Where am I? "It's time to take your medicine."
     "What medicine?" I asked. I looked up at the lady. She was dressed in nurse robes.
     "The one that keeps the hallucinations away," she said.
     "What hallucinations?"
     "Time to tell the story again," the nurse whispered under her breath. Again? "One day you were in school and you screamed "zombie" and started attacking everyone. We brought you here and tried giving you medicine to get rid of the hallucinations. When we stopped giving you the medicine you started attacking again. Now you need to stay here."
     "I just had a dream about the apocalypse."
     "You usually do, that is a side effect of the medication, the reality you believed became your dreams."
     "Who are you?"
     "Nurse Maggie."
     "Maggie? As in the Maggie in my dream who's boyfriend, Jason died."
     "I'm that Maggie. I just wasn't in the apocalypse with you and Jason was my husband before he died."
"What about Angel, Valerie, Mark, Mike, John, and Will?"
"Angel and John are other nurses that work here. Valerie, Mark, and Will were your friends before everything happened. And Mike was your boyfriend."
"Can I see any of them?"
"They all take turns visiting you on visiting days."
"Why don't I remember any of this?"
"Another side effect of the medicine. Soon everything will start coming back to you again. You need to take your medicine." Nurse Maggie handed me a fairly large pill and a cup of water. I took the pill and drank all of the water.
Everything came back to me. Blood. Lots of blood. In a class room. Innocent people I harmed. No one died.
Being drug away in a straight jacket. Stabbed with a needle. Going unconscious.
     Waking up in a white room. The one I'm in now. Given medicine. Sleeping. Dreaming.
     Zombies. Around me. Killing them. Blood spilling out of their rotting bodies. Blood on me. I'm bleeding. I've been scratched. It hit an artery. I fall to the ground. I go unconscious.
     I'm back in the white room. The nurse is still standing there. "Do you remember now?" She asked.
     "Yes. No one died because of me, right?"
     "No. Just injured."
     "Will I ever be allowed out?"
     "Maybe you'll be allowed to go out to dinner with your friends and family, but that wouldn't be for a long time. We need to know that you'll be fully stable first."
     "How many times have I asked you all of this?"
     "Including this time, thirteen."
     "Have I gone insane?"
     "No, you just have mental health problems." That's definitely what she's supposed to say.
     "Can I leave this room?"
     "To eat and when you have visitors."
     "Can I interact with the other patients?"
     "No."
     "Why not?"
     Nurse Maggie didn't respond. I guess she can't answer that.
     "What about school?"
     "You have work books and you can request any books you want to read." She gestured to the bookshelf on the other side of the room. The only other thing in here besides a bed, a desk, and a bedside table.
     On the top shelf there were lots of work books for reading and math. On the second shelf there were history books. Not text books, books on the presidents, World War II, the Civil War, and a bunch of other on the historical topics I found interesting. On the rest of the shelves there were books it looked like I picked out. They were mostly Stephen King books and some Dan Brown. Even when I've gone completely and utterly insane I still have good taste in books.
     "I'm going to go now," Nurse Maggie said. She walked out of the room. She locked the door.
     I got up and walked over to the bookshelf. I picked up It by Stephen King. I've always wanted to read this. I walked back to the bed with the book and sat down. I opened it and I started to read it.